Scottish wind and solar power experienced a bumper year in 2015 with record breaking wind output generating enough electricity for almost all of the country's homes.
WWF Scotland also claimed that in the tens of thousands of households with solar panels, half or more of their electricity or hot water was met from the sun for most of the year.
The charity, who have analysed data from monitor WeatherEnergy, said the figures show last year was "huge" for green energy.
WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said: "Without doubt, 2015 was a huge year for renewables, with wind turbines and solar panels helping to ensure millions of tonnes of climate-damaging carbon emissions were avoided.
"With 2016 being a critical year politically, we’d like to see each of the political parties back policies that would enable Scotland become the EU's first fully renewable electricity nation by 2030."
The data shows that, on average, wind power generated enough to supply the electrical needs of 97 per cent of Scottish homes - or the equivalent of 41 per cent of Scotland’s entire electricity needs for the year.
A record December also meant turbines produced enough power to supply more than 100 per cent of Scottish households on all but two days that month.
Mr Banks added: "December will be rightly remembered for the damage done by the extreme weather, so it won’t surprise many to learn it also turned out to be a record-breaking month for wind power output.
"For 2015 as a whole, thanks to an increase in installed capacity, overall wind power output broke all previous records and was up by almost a fifth year-on-year."
The figures have been welcomed by the Scottish Government, who have pledged that all of Scotland's electricity will be provided by renewable energy by 2020.
Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said: "I welcome this analysis from WWF Scotland which highlights that 2015 was a very good year for renewable energy in Scotland.
"Scotland’s renewables sector is stronger than ever and our early adoption of clean, green energy technology and infrastructure was the right thing to do.
"Renewables are now Scotland’s biggest electricity generator with nearly half of gross electricity consumption coming from renewables."
Referring to the UK Government's decision to cut subsidies for onshore windfarms, he added: "Despite damaging policy changes from the UK Government, we will continue to harness – and bolster – Scotland’s renewables potential, both in generation and infrastructure.
"Devolved administrations, like the Scottish Government, will be strong drivers of a progressive climate agenda. A low carbon economy is more than just a practical way forward – green energy plays a crucial role in the security of Scotland’s energy supply."
The figures who that, overall, yearly wind output was up by 16 per cent on the previous year, with the top two months being January and December.
For homes fitted with solar PV panels, there was enough sunshine in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow or Inverness during April and May to generate an estimated 100 per cent or more of the electricity needs of an average home.
While for properties with solar hot water panels, there was enough sunshine in the same cities in May to generate an estimated 100% of the hot water needs of an average home.
Karen Robinson of WeatherEnergy said: "Despite misconceptions, Scotland has massive potential for using solar power. The data clearly shows that there’s plenty of sunshine to meet a significant proportion of an average family’s electricity needs for the majority of months of the year.
"With hundreds of thousands of household roofs, it would not take much to tap more of the sun’s power."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel